KINGMAKER AND DREAM-BREAKER
THERE is no hiding behind platitudes for British Athletics performance director Neil Black. The 80-strong squad which will head out to Brazil in less than two weeks is his, and Black knows the buck stops with him.
Neil Black: British Athletics performance director
PRESS ASSOCIATION
The UK Sport medal target hasn’t made his job much easier, demanding between seven and nine medals from the Games – more than the six achieved in 2012, considered a disappointment by former head coach Charles van Commenee.
Black has been involved with the governing body since 1992, moving as a physiotherapist to the man charged with performance, science and medicine programmes and having personally managed support systems for Jessica Ennis-Hill Ennis-Hill and Mo Farah in the buildup to 2012 before taking on his current role as overseer later that year, taking the reins from Van Commenee, who directed proceedings without the presence of a performance director.